Stock Market & Financial Investment News

Amazon price target lowered to $400 from $410 at RW BairdBaird called Amazon's Q2 earnings report "solid" but lowered its price target on the stock to $400 from $410 citing the company's margin compression and Q3 guidance. The firm, which also noted the stabilization of paid unit growth and healthy usage trends, keeps its Outperform rating on the stock.

Pendrell unit: Court rejects attempts to limit scope of DRM patentsContentGuard Holdings, a subsidiary of Pendrell Corporation (PCO), announced that on Friday, March 20, Judge J. Rodney Gilstrap of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a 144 page Claim Construction Order in lawsuits ContentGuard filed against several companies who continue to use its patented Digital Rights Management solutions without a license, including Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), DirecTV (DTV), Google (GOOG), HTC, Huawei, Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics (SSNLF). In his order, Judge Gilstrap interpreted the language in ContentGuard’s patents in a manner that fully preserves the breadth of ContentGuard’s patented Digital Rights Management technologies. These technologies were developed to enable the distribution of digital media over the Internet and other networks, including cellular and satellite networks, and provide innovative solutions to problems that were once thought to be unsolvable. “We are very pleased with the Court’s ruling,” commented James Baker, ContentGuard’s Vice President for Licensing and Strategic Development. “We believe these claim constructions demonstrate that the online stores defendants provide for buying and renting DRM-protected movies, videos, books, and music and devices that play, run, display or print this DRM-protected content infringe ContentGuard’s pioneering DRM patents.”

Amazon plans to shut down Shopify rival Amazon Webstore, Re/code reportsAmazon is planning to shut down Amazon Webstore, its competitor to Shopify and Bigcommerce, Re/code reports, citing sources. The company will allow its Webstore customers over a year to find a new vendor before the service is fully shut down, the sources say. Reference Link

VMware to face more competitive process for DOD contract, says StifelAfter government websites indicated that Citrix (CTXS), Amazon (AMZN) and others succeeded in getting the DoD to reconsider its awarding of a $1.6B, five-year contract to VMware (VMW), Stifel said it doesn't think VMware has necessarily lost the opportunity, but that the company will now likely face a more competitive bidding process to win the deal. The firm view this example as supporting its concerns that VMware's steps to become a more strategic vendor have the potential to be as much of a threat as an opportunity and Stifel maintains its Hold rating on the stock.

VMware award from DISA canceled after protest, siliconANGLE reportsOn March 12, the Defense Information Security Agency, or DISA, reversed a decision to award VMware (VMW) with a $1.6B contract following protests by Amazon Web Services (AMZN), Citrix Systems (CTXS), and others, reported siliconANGLE. A government posting noted that "Amendment 0002 is issued to cancel the request for proposal to further analyze the government's needs." Reference Link